Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Something Wicked This Way Comes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Good vs. Evil
Age, Time, and Acceptance
Love and Happiness
Fear, the Supernatural, and the Unknown
Summary
Analysis
The next morning Will and Jim wake and run down to the field. The carnival is still there, and local boys run from attraction to attraction. The train is old and rusted, but it looks normal enough, and the calliope sits silently near the ticket booth. “It’s just a plain old carnival,” Will says in disbelief.
The fact that the carnival now appears normal only serves to heighten Will and Jim’s fears. They know what they witnessed the night before, but by the light of day it all appears different.
Themes
Walking through the sea of people, Will and Jim see Miss Foley, their seventh-grade teacher. Miss Foley’s nephew, Robert, is visiting from Wisconsin and he had run off to the carnival early that morning. “You seen him?” she asks the boys, concerned. They haven’t. “I love carnivals,” says Miss Foley, like “a little woman lost somewhere in her gray fifties.”
Bradbury’s description of Miss Foley as a “little woman lost somewhere in her gray fifties” makes her appear old and nostalgic, and her love of carnivals has the same effect. Here, Miss Foley appears as a little girl trapped in an old woman’s body, which makes her desire to ride the carousel much more believable.
Themes
Miss Foley walks toward the Mirror Maze, searching for Robert. “No,” says Will. “No Mirror Maze.” Miss Foley asks why, and Will replies, “People get lost.” She laughs and slips into the maze. Will and Jim stand at the entrance, their hair on end, and step into the maze. They can see dozens of Miss Foleys reflected in the mirrors, but she seems unaware of the boys. Suddenly, she begins to cry and scream. “Oh God! Help! Help, oh God!”
Will warns Miss Foley to stay out of the Mirror Maze because he senses and fears its danger. Miss Foley risks getting “lost” in the maze because she is reflected as a young child, not as a fifty-year-old woman.
Themes
“This way,” Will yells, grabbing for Miss Foley in the Mirror Maze. Miss Foley grips his hand and they step out into the sunlight. “My God, did you see her, she’s lost, drowned in there, poor girl,” Miss Foley cries. The ticket-taker assures them that they were the only people in the maze, but Miss Foley is unconvinced. “I know her,” Miss Foley says. “We must find her.” Jim looks toward the maze and asks who. “The fact is,” Miss Foley replies, “she looked like myself, many, many years ago.” She turns to go home, and Will follows. “Will,” says Jim. “We’re staying until sundown, boy, dark sundown, and figure it all. You chicken?”
The ticket-taker assures Miss Foley that she was the only one in the maze because she was; the reflection she saw was in fact herself as a child, not simply someone who resembles her. Miss Foley’s insistence on finding the girl mirrors her own desire to regain her lost youth, as this part of herself has long since “drowned” and become “lost.” Once again, Will is repulsed and frightened by the carnival, while Jim is still drawn to it.
Themes
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